During the 19th century, the many rapids and falls on the Fox River were impediments to navigation by steamboat. Private investors and government officials were lobbied for years by developers with plans to improve the rotue with locks and canals. This 1853 map shows navigable routes by water and railroad (both proposed and existing) throughout the Great Lakes region, focusing on the Wisconsin and the Fox and Wisconsin river route from the lakes to the Mississippi and the lands owned by the Fox and Wisconsin Improvement Company.

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